When they said “you’re gonna need a bigger boat” in Jaws, this is exactly how they were feeling as the saw the big sea creature coming right towards them.
With all the Orca whale activity in the past year, it might be time to make a horror movie about them that would rival Jaws. You could name it “Fin,” or just allow the title to write itself and call it “Killer Whale.”
These fishermen in southeast Alaska would certainly vouch for a scary movie about Orcas considering what they went through recently. Some anglers were fishing for halibut in their popular “honey hole” spot when a rogue whale gave them quite the story to tell.
Luckily for us, the story comes with a video that proves this harrowing experience out on the water actually happened. The fisherman was trying to reel in a halibut when an Orca whale broke off from its pod and started heading right towards his boat.
The man described his initial reaction in the caption below the video, saying:
“We were anchored in 225 feet of water. I was filming a pod of orcas just off the front of our boat. I turned to see a 4-foot fin coming directly at us from the rear of the boat.”
And he is not kidding. The fin could not have been lined up better with the boat as the camera swings around to catch the whale coming right towards them. They couldn’t figure out why the whale would suddenly change course like it did, but then it hit them: they had a halibut on the line.
Once they realized that the whale was going after the fish they had hooked, it was race for the ages:
“I didn’t want to hook the orca, so I reeled as fast as I could while I continued to film. The little halibut was just out of his reach as they both got to the boat at the same time.”
The Alaskan angler seemingly managed to avoid disaster with the last second reel in of the fish. However, just because the halibut was out of the water didn’t mean that the Orca was finished messing with the boat.
With the whale coming to rest right underneath their vessel, the fisherman knew he needed to think of something quickly:
“(The Orca came to) a stop directly beneath our boat. I pulled the fish into the boat and as I unhooked it, I looked over the side and there was a giant killer whale looking up at me with one eye.
I still had the little halibut in my hand, so I dropped it back in the water, hoping that was all he wanted.”
Once the fish was thrown back in the water, the man assumes that the whale ate it and then went on its merry way. I’m sure the people that were in the small fishing boat are counting their blessings after the close call.
And they apparently got right back to fishing afterwards:
“I picked up my camera and got another video of the whale as he rolled out from under the boat and went on his way. We all took a deep breath and continued to fish.”
Take a look at the incredible and very intimidating video below:
